Review: Luke Lund – Pattern Recognition (Conditional, Aug 14)

For all of the hulking power and meticulous composition on display throughout Pattern Recognition, the music found on the tape has an almost aggressive plasticity to it, as if its trying to force its artificiality as uncomfortably close to the listener as possible. This makes sense when considered with the alleged conceptual background of the release, which is described as “a soundtrack to the modern dystopian reality of normalised surveillance, malicious deepfakes, involuntary data collection, the AI arms race, and so on, and so ever onwards without end.” Lund’s disorienting synth acrobatics stretch across the stereo field like cellophane around a corpse, augmented with fractured bits of decaying glitches and rumbling growls of bass, desperately concealing what ends up to be a profound emptiness. Lund also explores fragility and impermanence in his constructions, unceremoniously dissolving temporary rhythmic handholds and displaying an awe-inspiring control over the sound objects at work—the yanking motions that unseat the lumbering buildup of “Conditioning Augmentation” are enough to knock you off your feet.